Walker feeds Cows

Walker finally got the guts to feed the cows range cubes today! Now he is a cow feeding expert, of course! Aren't all 7 year olds experts???
Fun day today just lolly gagging around the ranch & then into town this afternoon to walk around Monument Hill. Great view of town & the Colorado River.
Had a fun lunch with the girls & then back to the ranch to mess around feeding the calves & seeing how many circles around the house it takes to empty the Kubota's gas tank!
Will be sad for them to leave tomorrow, but they need some time at home to relax before school starts again. Plus, my sister arrives tomorrow. Will be good to see her as I haven't seen her at all over the Christmas break!

Christmas Pictures

My mom, Gerry, & me on Christmas Eve. She tried to get a picture of Charlie & me, but those mostly came out as blurs & a few of my water glass. We hadn't even had our wine yet at that point!! Fun & delicious dinner at Villagio's - one of my most favorite Italian restaurants. Especially since they will deliver to my house!
Merritt & Walker opening more Wii games. They were extra excited that I have my Wii console out at the ranch so they could play to their hearts content.
Our friends from Chicago got to dude it up at the ranch. Jenny & Luke are enjoying a ride on Leo. Charlie introduced the oldest & middle son to peeing outside. Will be interesting to find out if they are doing the same thing in their yard in Chicago!! Oh well, one of the advantages of being a boy. So good to see them & can't wait to see them again soon. Maybe Charlie & I will make it up to Chicago!!

Too busy to Blog!

Very busy & wonderful Christmas this year. 
We've had a great time with family & friends.  In Houston for Christmas Eve & part of Christmas Day & then back out to the ranch.
Will try to get some pictures posted instead of writing it all out.  Between friends & family, there are few people we haven't seen over the holiday.  Looking forward to New Year's Eve & the start of a new year.
I hope everyone had a great Christmas & will have a safe & fun New Year's.

Still Waiting on those Danged Elves

Busy, busy, busy is the name of the game these days. 
I was able to get the cheese grits casserole & rum cake made while supervising the removal of the old deck & the tree removers.  I also got the horses out of the bull pasture & got mineral out for all 3 herds.
Today was almost a repeat of yesterday...made 2 chocolate cakes & a from scratch lasagna.  Deck is completely gone which now reveals a side to the house that will need to be painted.  The tree guys worked some more on the oak & ash trees that are rotten & must go.  They'll be back tomorrow to finish up & then I will no longer worry that a slight breeze will cause those giant trees to crash into the house.  Really sad to loose those trees, they've been in the yard since before I was born.  But...they gotta go.
OK - off to bed.  Have friends & their kiddos coming out tomorrow so it will be a play day.  Yippee!!! 

Where Is An Elf When You Need One??

Busy week ahead.  I've been planning my menus for Christmas in Houston & all the family at the ranch after Christmas.  Tomorrow will be the start of a busy & short week.  I hope I can get it all done.
Must get my little Sugar dog in to the vet - she is having some posterior region problems that must be attended to, get more mineral out for the cows & then get those crazy horses out of the bull pasture.  They are such hay hogs & those bulls are so mancito that they won't push them out of the way. 
We are going to have quite the variety of yummies to eat & I'll have to get to the grocery store as well so that I can get to cooking.
Good thing we have two freezers because I'm going to be filling it this week for dinners next week.  Need to make cheese grits & a super yummy lasagna.  Make a cake or two plus get the goodies for two Christmas Day meals - enchiladas in Houston for lunch & then a more traditional meal for dinner at the ranch.  Good thing we'll have a two hour drive as I'll need the nap!!
Shoot!  I'm getting tired just thinking about it.
Oh well, at least I won't be spending all my time in the kitchen while we have company at the ranch & I'll get to go play with everyone.  Good thing WB has a housekeeper because I sure couldn't do all this & get the house cleaned too!

Busy Bee

I have been whirling like a dervish for days now. It's been a lot of fun though. Finished decorating the house for Christmas on Thursday. Didn't do too much since it will all have to come down at some point, but it is just enough to bring that Christmas spirit into the house. Now to get some presents wrapped & under the tree!
Michelle, her son Daniel, Belinda & Laurie all came over for dinner that night. We had a really good time visiting & I think WB enjoyed having some lively company. The girls were all quite impressed at all of the things he has done & stuff he knows. He loved having a brand new audience for his stories.
Homemade shredded pork enchiladas, beans, rice, sliced avocado - yum, yum! Dinner was really pretty tasty. Had to make chile con queso too & the super easy version of it with Velveeta & Rotel. I figured Michelle hadn't had either of those food items in a long time since she lives in the Netherlands.
This tree is always set up in the house. Mom's brother gave it to her years ago. Just love this little tree & in years past, it has served as our Christmas tree.
Good times over the weekend. We graced the Post Oak with our presence on Friday night. Such a good time & I laughed so hard that I had a headache.

Brenda & Scot had a fun party Saturday at their new house. Such a lovely home that is ginormous. Fun thing about B & S is that even though their house is huge, it feels very warm & inviting. Like you know that you could tuck your feet up under you on the couch or on the coffee table. The picture wouldn't fit, but they built a bar/entertaining room. Really neat layout so that the little kids had a place to go play, watch tv, video games - whatever. The big kids have this room with a full bar, plenty of tables & chairs & lots of room to put on a yummy spread. B & S out did themselves with delicious cocktails, great food & fun people.

Ain't It Good

Super Awesome day today.
Started off getting all the Christmas decorations out of the storage barn & to the front porch for sorting. Dang but Mom had a thing for boxes & bows. I think I have 4-5 large plastic storage tubs full of those items. Found all the decorations, but no lights. Forgot what a fire paranoid she was & the lights got thrown out every year. So...ran off to town to buy lights. Didn't think I'd have enough & was sorry to prove myself correct on that. I guess it is off to another town close by to buy more tomorrow. I can't finish getting the tree up, much less decorated without those lights!
WB & I took a trailer full of the girls in to town for branding this afternoon. That is one of the girls getting her L open A on her left hip. Freeze branding is so much easier on the cattle than heat brands. No burning or scaring or any major discomfort for them & we have our brand & the inventory number on the cow just like always. Kinda cool - no pun intended!
WB especially likes the freeze branding at the vet clinic because that means he can sit back & let other people do the work. I was photographer & timer. Helped a little bit with getting them out of the trailer & into the chute. Other than that, we just make sure that the correct number is being permanently frozen onto the cow's hide. Really neat how it works. Basically, the liquid nitrogen gets the branding irons so cold that when left on the hide for 1 minute, it kills the hair follicles. So, no hair will grow in those spots. If you leave the iron on for less than a minute on a black cow, the hair will grow in white. The follicle remains in tact, but the hair color is permanently changed. Really really cool - again, no pun intended there.

Here is a display of the turf wars that went down. We have put the two herds of girls together from the north & east pastures. Woo Hoo - North side meets East side. So glad that they only have horns because we'd have been extra busy with clean up if they could use real weapons! I think they mostly have their hierarchy all worked out. This gal was certainly getting her display of her badassness on. I wouldn't want to tangle with her!! At least now we finally have all the cow work done for 2010, but will have to get started fairly quickly with it in 2011. All the pecking order skirmishes should be done soon & things will go back to normal.

Back to decorating the tree tomorrow & I have a pork shoulder roast that is begging to be simmered in the crock pot all day & then be made into enchiladas tomorrow night.

Great day yesterday.  It was really chilly yesterday morning & so I dressed with a few layers.  It wasn't long before I had to peel out of a few of those layers since it warmed up to the 70s!  Nothing like a 30 degree temperature increase to totally change up the wardrobe choices.
I got all of the north pasture herd into the pens because we knew one of the girls didn't have an ear tag & we needed to get a better look at all of them.  Once they were out of that pasture, we were able to get all the bulls & horses in their place.  Those bulls are a pain to move.  They follow you eating range cubes until they notice another bull beside them.  Then they're posturing, snorting, pawing at the ground - the whole nine yards.  Jeez guys!  There aren't any girls around to even see your displays & you are going to be bachelors until Memorial Day!!  Finally got them moved though with WB & Jack's help. 
It took us most of the day to sort the ladies out & we had a lot more without brands than we thought.  That means that the little ones will get to wait until after the first of the year for their brands.  I'm sure that if they knew, they'd be happy about it!!
Since no working cattle this morning, I'm off to rat around the storage barn for the big Christmas tree, lights & ornaments.  WB wants to put up the big tree.  I'm really happy about that since this is the first time since Mom died that he has even wanted a tree.  I did remind him last night that the tree wasn't pre-lit & so he may end up changing his mind.  Doubtful though.
Hope all have a super great day.  Will post a picture of the tree once finished.

Working for the Weekend

What a fun weekend. I want another one now!!!!
Had a great time in Houston. Our dinner table from Saturday night on the right. I knew we were in for a culinary marathon when I saw 4 glasses at each place setting. First course shown is roasted red pepper soup with parmesan & prosciutto crostini served with very tasty white wine - OMG!!! My cousin Rose out did herself on this menu & her husband picked the most delicious wines. Glad there were 7 of us because I would have felt compelled to finish every bottle of champagne, white & red wines & definitely the port! It was also great to see my cousin, Maria Stella. She wasn't a grown up married lady last time I saw her. Her husband is as kind & brilliant as she is so they are a great match. An international mix since she is very Mexican & he is very Canadian. Really sweet couple.
Today we will start getting the teenager group of heifers sorted for branding. I will be relieved to get that group of girls out of their pastures so that we can put the bulls & horses in their place. It is really difficult to load up the Kubota with feed when you have horses & giant Brahman bulls clamoring to sneak a bite out of the buckets. It is also a little scary since you don't know if you are going to get kicked or bitten by a horse or have one of the bulls run you over! Gets a little more "western" than I'd like. Can't blame them though because that feed does smell delicious even to me! Charlie swears he is going to put some in a bowl with milk & give it a whirl one day!! Will have to be ready with a camera the day he does - should be funny.
Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Busy days on the ranch & so too tired to blog at night.
Yesterday, Donkey Hody decided that Pepe's handle bars were a great head scratcher. This was decided only after he realized he couldn't eat it!
All of the cows needed mineral in their feeders so I got that mixed up & delivered to all herds. Nearly got squished in the process because the horses & bulls were hanging around the feed room. All the animals go nuts when they see the feed buckets. A little hairy there when I had 3 horses, 1 Brahman bull & 1 Hereford bull all gathered around Pepe. Didn't know if I was going to get kicked, gored or just plain run over trying to get on & get him started!
Today is the first SASS shoot I will have been to since September. I hope I don't completely embarrass myself as I haven't done any practicing what so ever at all! Regardless, it will be fun.
I'll have to leave the shoot early to get to Houston. My cousin is in town for one night only. She has been visiting her family in Mexico & then flying back to Canada where she works for the Mexican Consulate. I don't envy her nearly complete crossing of North America! Way too much time on a plane for me. I am looking forward to seeing her & meeting her new husband. It has been quite a few years since I last saw her.
The picture below is of some of the little girls that we are keeping up to get used to us as well as needing branding. They were clamoring all over me & Pepe to get to some range cubes. So fun to just hang out in the pasture with them. The Brahmans especially do seem to enjoy affection & love to have their little horn base, top of their head, chin & side of their face scratched. None seem to mind a little back massage either. They are shy, curious & intelligent creatures!!
Off to finish getting ready for the shoot. Guns, ammo & most of my gear already in the truck. Now to get me ready & decide what to wear - always a dilemma!!

Oh What a Beautiful Morning

The ground was white with frost & the sky was mostly pink this morning. Looks like it is going to be another beautiful day.

A Day Like This

What a lovely day. It was super chilly this morning so I put on the layers. 2 shirts, 1 sweatshirt, jacket & hat plus silk thermals under my jeans with my warmest socks before my boots. I felt like Randy from The Christmas Story! Went down to the workshop to help WB. He was retrofitting some heat branding irons with shorter handles for freeze branding. That was super fun!! I didn't get to do too much, but I did get to hold the rosebud torch & heat the iron so WB could bend the new handles. After he used the cutting torch to cut of the excess, I got to pound the handles flat again. Needless to say, I had peeled out of a few shirt layers around all that heat!
The electricians finished their work & now the TV in my room actually works instead of constantly searching for satellite signal. This is probably a blessing in disguise. I didn't really miss the TV, but it is nice to have on now & again. Will feel we are getting use of our investment.
Ran off to take care of errands & look at travel trailers. Only saw two, but I liked one of them. Since this is just the beginning of the search, I don't want to make any decisions or give WB the go for a purchase quite yet. Am going to hit Craig's List to see what else I can find.
By the time I got home & unloaded, it was time to feed the kids. Look how cute they are all lined up & sharing their dinner. The one on the right got her freeze brand yesterday which is why her rump is shaved. They are too cute! The momma below had horns yesterday, but we had them removed since they were growing into her head. She seems to be in a much better mood today although she still runs all the little ones off from which ever trough she is using. So, I guess she hasn't changed too much since alleviating her headache!!
Not sure what tomorrow will bring. Need to get a bunch of packages in the mail & then I may get the horses up & ride each one of them for a little bit in the arena. I don't feel too good about taking them too far out with out a riding buddy, but it will do them good to get saddled & ridden a little bit. They are getting fat & sassy out there in the pasture gorging on hay all day.
I think I'll go watch a little of this TV. Will most likely turn it off & read my book though!!

Busy day full of fence & tractor tire fixers & electricians.  In between all of that, we go some cow work done.  We got 5 of the Brahman kids freeze branded & that poor mamma's horns chopped off.  That was something gross & cool to see.  The vet used a wire that is a saw blade & sawed them off.  Her head may be a little sore, but surely her headache is gone now that she doesn't have her horns trying to grow back into her skull!
Tomorrow will be a fun day.  A little shopping/errand running in town & then off to look at some travel trailers.  Hopefully, I'll find the perfect thing at the perfect price!  :-)

Weekend Fun

Had a great weekend in H-town.  Got my hair cut- yea!!!   The company & margaritas at El Patio were awesome!!  The only thing was all the freaking kids.  Not little ones who can't help it.  These were big kids & there were lots of them.  After one of them bumped my chair for the 5th+ time, I kindly asked that he stop playing near our table.  After he nearly ran into our waiter, I firmly asked him to watch out & to go sit at his table.  When he was standing on a chair & disrupting 3 tables, I flagged down Mom.  She was oblivious!  I'm thinking with a kid like that, she needed the margarita more than I did!  Hell - make the kid drink one!! (Not really y'all, but surely the thought crosses the mind, yes???)  Also makes me glad that I don't have kids as I would surely have spanked that child right in the middle of the restaurant.  Of course, my kid would also know that their entire world would be over if they ever even thought about acting like that in a restaurant!

Play on Saturday was great - Into The Woods.  Cinderella & Little Red Riding Hood were perfect parts for our cousins & they were wonderful!  HITS is a really special acting program for kids & I've watched the girls just get better & better over the years.  I should probably start getting their autographs now!  They sing & dance & know all their lines.  Heck, I can barely walk & talk most days & am surely falling down if there is gum involved!  Harry Potter at the IMAX on Sunday to complete a really fun weekend.  Drove back to the ranch Monday morning to avoid the weekend & weekday traffic.  Works perfectly!

Above is a picture of my new stalkers.  The 3 ladies were in our group of little ones because they had gotten rather poorly out in the back.  They are so funny.  They will not herd up with the front herd.  They are their own herd & try to hang with their old herd which is hard since there are fences in the way.  Anytime they see me outside the house or barn, they come a running.  Of course, I do always give them some sort of snack.  That is why they are hanging around.  All 3 were wild as a march hare when we first got them up & now they follow me around like puppy dogs.  I can even touch their noses.  Of course, they think my fingers are range cubes!  When they got here, they wouldn't even eat from your hand much less let you touch them.  With a little more time & about 800lbs of range cubes, I could probably get them to let me actually touch them!  Guess it's a good thing I do have other stuff to do.

Rather uneventful Thursday.  Mostly worked on straightening up the house & de-mousing the other dining room closet.  The mice have long moved on, but cleanup is necessary.  There is more to do out there, but I can only face so much of that at one time.  Not only is it just disgustingly gross, but I can only inhale so much Clorox before I feel as though I will asphyxiate myself!  I can see it now...Wow!  How'd she die?  Sad story.  Death by Clorox!!!
Uncle Don is coming out today &  so we'll have a busy afternoon of business to discuss.  It will be good to see him.
I'll be heading off to Houston this afternoon & will start a busy weekend with dinner at El Patio (can't wait for a Grand Gold Margarita!!) & then to see some cousins in a play tomorrow.  Should be a fun show as it is a mix of Grimm Fairy tales.  Both girls have nice parts to perform.
Hopefully, Sunday will be a nice restful day & I'll get to spend some time with my Mom out in Sugar Land.  Other than that - no plans for Sunday!!!  Monday will roll around quickly enough & it will be back to the ranch.
Little Pippin will go home with me today & her Mommy will be back from her trip.  It has been fun having her with us, but I am ready for her to go home.
Hope you have a good weekend!!

Hump Day

In honor of hump day. Thought I'd post a picture of a most handsome hump. Mr. Tracey is sharing his range cube treats with one of his blond girlfriends. I had just fed the calves & these guys looked so sad that they weren't getting any dinner except for grass & hay. So, being that I am me, I had to give them a little tasty treat.
Lovely day. Sprayed the front yard for weeds. We'll see how many spots I missed! Since it is pretty much all clover, grass burs & dandelions, I hope I got it all. Can't wait until Spring when we can get a real yard! Mom would be having an ever loving fit if she saw the yard the way it is now. Guess that is another reason I am here - to take care of these types of things.
Ran a bunch of errands in town then home again. Boiled some chicken & so made some broth for WB. He is still down with his cold & really enjoyed his homemade broth. I think tomorrow I'm going to add some noodles to it & make it into real chicken noodle soup! Hopefully, he will feel better by tomorrow.
As soon as I go put the pot roast away, I am hitting the sack. Long day of a lot of running about. At least I was able to do it in boots & jeans instead of dress clothes & high heels! Much prefer my current wardrobe to my old. Not that dressing nicely isn't fun sometimes. It just makes it more fun when you don't have to do it every day & doing it because you want to & not because you have to!